Public Transport Systems: The Sinews of European Urban Citizenship?

Public transport is often given a key role in the reinvigoration of European cities. The paper explores the relationship between urban citizenship and urban transport through a study of four cities (Athens, Bologna, Dublin and Helsinki). Urban citizenship is considered to comprise both ‘social cohesion’, i.e., the participation in the public space of the city, and ‘social inclusion’, the right of all inhabitants to physical mobility within the city and hence to access employment and social facilities. Despite the claims of urban planners, there is only weak evidence that reducing car usage contributes to social cohesion, but there is however stronger evidence that reducing car dependency contributes to social inclusion.